2004-2005

WORCESTER, Mass. -- September 20, 2004 -- The public is invited
Thursday, September 23, to view the finished work of the five
finalists for the design of the memorial for the six Worcester
firefighters who died during a warehouse fire in 1999. The public
viewing will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, September 23, in Alden
Memorial Hall at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute
Road.

The five finalists are Stephen Stimson Associates of Falmouth, Ben
Smoot of Brookline, Benjamin Kou of Cambridge, Chuni Wang of Waltham,
and Gala Simon Associates Inc. of Watertown.

The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee, which is
establishing a memorial and memorial park to honor the firefighters,
issued the invitation for the public to view the five finalists'
designs.

"This is the first, and only, opportunity to view the finished work
of the five finalists chosen by our design competition jury to compete
for the privilege of designing the most fitting tribute we can
envision to the courage of the six brave firefighters who sacrificed
their lives for our safety," said Michael J. Donoghue, chairman of the
Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee. "Through this public
viewing, our committee is continuing its commitment to the public to
share in the tribute to our fallen heroes."

A blue-ribbon jury is meeting in Worcester Thursday, Sept. 23, and
Friday, Sept. 24, to select the winner in the two-stage national
design competition held to determine the ultimate design for the
memorial and memorial park. The jury will meet privately to review
the five finalists' entries, and to vote on the first-, second-,
third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishers. The winner will receive a
prize of $30,000 and will be given an opportunity to further develop
the design of the memorial and memorial park.

The committee solicited design entries nationwide this past spring.
From that, 158 designers submitted entries. They were judged by the
same jury in July. It picked the five finalists whose finished work
will be on display Sept. 23. Unlike the entries in July, the ones on
display and under review by the jury this month will be scale models
showing comprehensive plans for the memorial and memorial park.

The public also was invited in July to view the 158 original
entries in the design competition. Hundreds of people attended that
public viewing, which featured only poster-board-sized drawings of the
memorial designs submitted by entrants.

The $3-million to $5-million memorial and memorial park are to be
built through a public fund-raising campaign. The site is next to
Worcester Fire Department headquarters on Grove Street on Salisbury
Pond across from Institute Park.

The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee began working in
late 2001 to establish a memorial to honor firefighters Paul
A. Brotherton, Timothy P. Jackson, Jeremiah M. Lucey, James F. "Jay"
Lyons III, Joseph T. McGuirk and Lt. Thomas E. Spencer. They died
December 3, 1999, trying to save the lives of others in an abandoned
warehouse off of Interstate 290 near downtown Worcester. Their deaths
were the worst loss of firefighters' lives in more than 20 years in a
building fire in America, and the third worst fire in Massachusetts'
history.

More information about the members of the design competition jury,
the five design finalists, and pictures of their original designs that
won them finalist status are available at the Worcester Fire Fighters
Memorial Web site.